About / The person behind the products

Hi, I'm Matteo.

I'm a husband, a CTO, a software engineer, an educator, and a chronic min-maxer.

Matteo smiling in a burgundy shirt — Trying very hard not to say "it depends."

People, products,
and figuring it out.

I like building software. I also like asking whether we should build it in the first place, which occasionally makes me way less popular.

What do people say they need? What do they actually need? How do we know? Those questions take up a lot of my attention. It's easy to get excited about an idea and start building before we've checked our assumptions. I do it too.

I want to make useful products and build a business that can afford to keep looking after them. That means making choices about where we spend our time, including saying no to things I'd enjoy working on.

Where I like to work: the overlap of making money, making users happy, and helping teams grow.

Then there's the team. I want people to understand why their work matters, have a say in the decisions, and feel proud of what they ship. My goal is to help them do that without making everything depend on me. Knowing when to get involved and when to step back takes practice.

I like teaching, too. Sometimes that means helping someone understand unfamiliar code. Sometimes it's helping someone help someone else. And sometimes it's just a conversation where I end up learning as much as the other person.

And yes, I'm a chronic min-maxer. If I have to do something more than twice, you better believe I'm thinking about optimizing it. I have to remind myself that not every frustration needs an automation. Sometimes you better use your hands.

01 / The longer story

My journey

I grew up in the '80s with a tech-savvy dad who would spend late nights typing on one of those gloriously loud keyboards, a green-tinted CRT monitor glowing in the dark. Naturally, that kind of thing rubs off on you. By high school, I was hooked on the web, learning HTML, CSS, PHP, and enough JavaScript to be dangerous.

A computer science degree was an easy choice. Alongside studying, I built the internal exam booking system, managed servers, and wrote countless tutorials. I also wrote half a book on C before realizing how long books take. I even got to run a few web development lessons and labs as a teaching assistant. That was fun and fulfilling.

Then I joined a local web agency, excited to build websites for a living. But between poor management, uninspiring assignments, and little room to grow, the excitement wore off soon. When the agency went out of business, I decided to venture out on my own.

Freelancing gave me freedom. What got me interested again, though, was finding agency owners who wanted someone to think with them, as opposed to a code monkey. I partnered up with a few of them and built and maintained high-volume e-commerce stores, developed custom software, and helped them make difficult technical decisions. I wanted to make an impact for them, not just "do as you're told".

Then I met Kevin. We started Automatic.css, then Frames, followed by Etch WP and Etch Studio. Somewhere along the way, two people building a WordPress plugin became a proper business with a team to manage. My job changed quite a bit.

These days, I'm CTO at Digital Gravy. I still write code (well, my AI does), but much of my work involves deciding what deserves our attention and helping the team take it forward. That can mean talking to customers, shaping priorities, or helping someone take on more responsibility.

There's plenty I'm still figuring out. I write about some of it here.

02 / The longer story

Off the clock

When I'm not working, I'm usually hanging out with my wife and our three cats. The cats think they're in charge. And, let's be honest, they totally are. Any cat person will know.

Music has always been a big part of my life. My dad tried to play every instrument he could get his hands on, and I picked up that habit. Drums are my main thing, but I also play guitar, bass, and a little piano. Blues and rock are my go-to. Give me an Eric Clapton solo and I'm happy. If you're curious, here's me on drums at my last concert.

I also took improv theater classes for three years. Acting wasn't my strong suit, but I had a decent eye for direction. I stuck around to help with lights and sound, and sometimes played background music while the actors made things up on the spot.

I like videogames, mostly strategy, simulation, and RPGs. Right now, I'm deep in Civilization 7, min-maxing my way to world domination one perfectly optimized turn at a time.

03 / The longer story

What’s next?

Are we building it? is where I share what I'm learning about building products and leading the people behind them. There are articles to read now, and I'm working on a podcast.

You can take a look or follow along by email. I'll send new articles and podcast updates when there's something worth sharing.

And if something here sounds familiar, let's compare notes.